V. I. Lenin

To Zinoviev, Lashevich And Stasova

Written:20 July, 1918First Published:First published in 1942 InLenin Miscellany XXXIV; Published according to the manuscriptSource:Lenin’sCollected Works, 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972 Volume 27, page 544Translated:Clemens Dutt; Edited by Robert DaglishTranscription/HTML Markup:David Walters & Robert CymbalaOnline Version:Lenin Internet
    ArchiveMarch, 2002

It is essential to move the maximum number of workers from
      Petrograd:

(1) some dozens of “leaders” (a la Kayurov)

(2) thousands of “rank and file”.

Otherwise we shall fall, for the situation with the
      Czechoslovaks is as bad as could be.

In such a situation it is silly to “sit tight” on
      the “wellbeing” of Petrograd and to
      “grudge” giving from there: let the Bolshevik
      majority in the Petrograd Soviet of Deputies even fall from 98
      per cent (have you 98 per cent?) to 51 per cent! What does it
      matter!

We shall not perish even (even!) if in Petrograd the number of
      those not ours in the Soviet of Deputies goes up to 49 per cent
      (if ever this does happen). But we shall certainly perish owing
      to the Czechoslovaks unless we make desperate efforts to add
      hundreds and thousands of leading workers in order to convert
      the jelly into something solid. This is not an exaggeration but
      an accurate appraisal. You will be responsible for our perishing
      if you are miserly and keep back “for Petrograd”.

Greetings! Yours, Lenin

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July 20, 1918